Velocette KTT Mk I, 1929
1929 · Veloce Ltd, Hall Green, Birmingham · 348cc overhead-camshaft single, production racer
Rotating view of a 3D model built for Manx Road Racer. A reconstruction from period photographs and drawings, not a surviving machine.
Velocette's overhead-camshaft K model appeared in 1925, a 350cc single with its camshaft driven by a vertical shaft and bevel gears. Alec Bennett won the 1926 Junior TT on one, the first TT win for an overhead-camshaft engine, and won the Junior again in 1928.
Until 1929, a private owner who wanted to race a Velocette had to adapt a sports model. The KTT, introduced that year, was a racing machine sold over the counter, and is described as the first British production racer. It used the KSS sports model as its basis, with closer gear ratios and a larger carburettor.
It also had the positive-stop foot gear change designed by Percy Goodman and Harold Willis and first used in 1928. Each press of the pedal moved the gearbox one ratio and the pedal returned to its starting point, so the rider no longer had to take a hand off the bars to change gear. Other British makers adopted the idea within a few years.
Freddie Hicks won the 1929 Junior TT on a Velocette at a record 69.71 mph, with Bennett third. Velocettes took six of the first ten places.
Facts
- Introduced: 1929, as a production racer
- Engine: 348cc overhead-camshaft single (74 x 81mm), bevel-shaft drive
- Gear change: positive-stop foot change (Goodman and Willis, 1928)
- Race: 1929 Junior TT, 1 Freddie Hicks (Velocette), 69.71 mph